The GUIDE TO POLITICAL BLOGGING 2007 is published this week. Featured among the 288 pages are a myriad of blog lists. Now for the TOP 100 RIGHT OF CENTRE BLOGS. This list was compiled by a panel of 12 right wing bloggers. Bearing in mind who they chose as Number 1 I should make clear that I had no part in it!The right of centre blogosphere is thought by many to be in a state of rude health. It is more diverse, radical and influential than its left of centre counterpart, but still there are only seven or eight right wing blogs which have a mass readership. This list was ranked by a group of right of centre bloggers. Their decision reflects in large part the rankings of the Top 500 list, chosen by more than 500 bloggers and blog readers, with one or two exceptions. The exceptions are James Cleverly and the Waendel Journal who are ranked more highly in this list, and Ellee Seymour who is in the top ten on the main list but only scrapes into the top twenty on this list. Ellee has established herself in the front line of British political blogging, but her softer, more personal approach may not have been to the the panel’s liking. You can’t win ‘em all!
Another female Blogger who has made an impact is Caroline Hunt, whose ‘devil may care’ attitude has attracted a number of admirers. Of the top four, Dizzy Thinks, in the person of Phil Hendren, has emerged as possibly the most improved blog of the year, which is reflected in his second position in this list and third in the overall list. He has broken a number of stories and his forensic analysis continues to impress. He doesn’t let his love of IT geekery dominate the blog, and he manages to find story after story in the pages of Hansard, which the mainstream media then follows up.
Guido Fawkes has not had his best year and he would be the first to admit it. His Newsnight ppearance alongside Michael White was the blogging equivalent of David Davis’s 2005 party conference speech. It wasn’t quite as bad as it appeared at the time, but it did do him – and ndeed the blogosphere – a considerable amount of damage. Despite that, his traffic levels have held up well.
ConservativeHome has dropped to number four in this list and I am slightly at a loss to know why. It has had an excellent, if overdue, redesign and although it went through a rough patch earlier in the year it is back to its fighting best. Not everyone likes its editorial stance, and it will be interesting to see how Platform 10, its new Cameroonian rival, competes in both analysis and storygetting. It will do well to rival Tim Montgomerie’s contacts, but perhaps that’s not the point. In fact, there is no reason why Platform 10 and ConservativeHome should be considered rivals. Time will tell.
Nadine Dorries is perhaps the brightest new entrant into the blogging world. The Tory MP for Mid Befordshire has some trenchant views and she’s not backward in coming forward in expressing them, much to the chagrin of the Conservative whips. In a very short time she’s created a cult. Her blog is the one most read by her fellow MPs – and not just Tories. John Redwood has become a truly prolific Blogger. He is very different in style to Nadine, but if you want insightful analysis into the economy, regulation and globalisation, John Redwood’s Diary is the place for you!
1 2 Iain Dale’s Diary
2 5 Dizzy Thinks
3 NEW Guido Fawkes
4 1 ConservativeHome
5 14 Croydonian
6 8 Archbishop Cranmer
7 3 Burning our Money
8 NEW Devil's Kitchen
9 NEW Tim Worstall
10 7 James Cleverly
11 23 Mr Eugenides
12 NEW Waendel Journal
13 NEW Nadine Dorries MP
14 NEW Adam Smith Institute
15 NEW Donal Blaney
16 64 Prague Tory
17 11 Tory Radio
18 4 Boris Johnson
19 9 Ellee Seymour
20 56 Caroline Hunt
21 NEW Daily Referendum
22 NEW EU Referendum
23 NEW Sinclair's Musings
24 NEW An Englishman's Castle
25 52 Theo Spark
26 NEW John Redwood MP
27 NEW Daniel Hannan MEP
28 36 UK Daily Pundit
29 58 Freedom & Whiskey
30 NEW Mike Rouse
31 NEW Roger Helmer MEP
32 NEW Islington Newmania
33 NEW City Unslicker
34 NEW Matt Wardman
35 48 Man in a Shed
36 18 Dodgeblogium
37 NEW Nourishing Obscurity
38 NEW Samizdata
39 NEW Taxpayers' Alliance
40 50 Martine Martin's Lebwog
41 NEW Daily Propaganda
42 NEW Musings of a Reactionary Snob
43 22 Bel is Thinking
44 NEW Prodicus
45 65 A Very British Dude
46 NEW WebCameron
47 NEW Priti Patel
48 NEW Richard Spring MP
49 28 A Tangled Web
50 NEW Edland 51 NEW Nation of Shopkeepers 52 NEW Not Proud of Britain 53 NEW The Bristow Blog 54 79 Thunder Dragon 55 NEW Glyn Davies 56 NEW Little Man in a Toque 57 NEW Globalisation Institute 58 NEW Britain & America 59 NEW Last Ditch 60 31 Gavin Ayling 61 NEW Vicky Ford 62 NEW Birmingham University CF 63 27 Ed Vaizey MP 64 NEW Is there more to life than shoes? 65 72 Conservative Party Reptile 66 41 A Conservative's Blog 67 57 Last Boy Scout 68 NEW Tory Reform Group 69 NEW Ghost of the Hitch 70 NEW John Moorcraft 71 NEW Blognor Regis 72 NEW England Expects 73 NEW Rachel Joyce 74 NEW PJC Journal 75 NEW David Gold 76 37 Tim Roll Pickering 77 46 Remittance Man 78 NEW Tapestry Talks 79 NEW Platform 10 80 89 Curly's Corner Shop 81 24 Road to EU Serfdom 82 13 West Brom Blog 83 NEW David Jones MP 84 NEW Istanbul Tory 85 NEW Neue Arbeit Macht Frei 86 NEW Pub Philosopher 87 17 Trevor Ivory 88 NEW Brussels Journal 89 NEW The Crossed Pond 90 NEW Not a Sheep Maybe a Goat 91 NEW YBF Activists 92 38 Contra Tory 93 NEW Scottish Tory Boy 94 NEW Hunter & Shooter 95 49 Civitas 96 NEW Cross of St George 97 NEW Nicolas Webb 98 NEW Martin Kelly 99 NEW Cornerstone 100 71 Laban Tall
44 comments:
Iain, perhaps we could have at least a temporary halt to the parade of lists?
It is our own conference shortly and you really need to concentrate and not produce the Ten Best Lists of Lists whilst a nation's welfare and future is at stake.
Or have you simply lost the will to campaign for Conservative causes?
Victor
I absolutely cannot stand Caroline Hunt's blog. She's just the sort of lefty inconsistant conservative I can't bare.
As for Dizzythinks, I'm not surprised his blog has risen to number 2. That's a very good blog.
ConHome coming 4th... I think that should be higher.
Guido needs to post at weekends otherwise he'll continue to fall... People prefer a full time blogger.
The list we were really waiting for. That's a kickass compilation full of independent thinkers and astute commentators. Good to see lots of new entries from MPs, MEPs and PPCs.
Yup, I'm chuffed.
I had hoped to be a little higher up _ I'm certainly better than a few that have made it into the top 50. Oh well: that's democracy!
Am really pleased that Dizzy and Croydonian did well.
I would like to thank the Great SysAdmin of ARPA for finding me a home.
Blogging on Blogs No. 94
I must say I am very disappointed to see myself languishing in a lowly position being soundly beaten by Caroline Hunt and Nadine Dorries (yuk yuk). It is on the other hand always a great pleasure to sit on City Slicker ! Great to see Croydonian getting some credit and I assume Dizzy only did well by fixing the computers so votes for me turned into votes for him
I suspect Hunter may be ever so slightly miffed that after all his efforts he can only manage a chortlesome 94th.Lets see if you took my position and doubled in you would still be 30 places above Hunter. Put it another way , I would have had to have been almost three times as bad as I actually am to have been as bad as Hunter.
94 green bottles hanging on the wall
94 green bottles hanging on the wall
and if one green bottle should accidentally fall
There would be 93 green bottles hanging on the wall
93 Green bottles hanging on the wall.............
This could take a long time what with 94 being such a big number an `all
Continued Page 94....
Sweet (we're there at #89, oh yes).
If Dizzy only supported a proper football team, he might have been number one.
For once I agree with anonymous. The lists are about as interesting as the non-league football scores in the Sunday papers - they fill space without any redeeming general interest.
wow little old me 21st, I'm well chuffed init.
....90 green bottles hanging on the wall......
I think I sit quite cosy next to Boris on this list. There's room for all styles of blogging, and I'm very grateful to everyone who voted for me.
67 green bottles...blimey its a long way from 94 isn`t it
Okay - I'll buy the book now.
PS Couldn't agree more -with the panel- about the Waendal journal.
It would help you all if you had an ounce of identifyable principle; what exactly do you want? I used to vote conservative but I won't anymore. The economy will destroy labour anyway so why would i vote for people who are different faces but still worship the great god multi-cult and the fiat currency economy. You can all go to hell.
40 Green bottles...haven`t even got to my position yet its so far from 94
50th! Not bad for a non-political blog
:-)
What is this obsession with lists? are you hoping to get a job with Channel 4?
Gosh. His Grace has been elevated a tad, from 8th to 6th. It comes as a great surprise and a very great honour.
He is humbled, and expresses his sincerest gratitude to his communicants and to those who voted for him.
Blessings,
+Cranmer
70th - An extremely kind placing...
The list does show that the right wing bloggersphere remains in very good health.
What happened to The Difference (one of only four blogs that I typically read)? Too much substance and not enough gossip for the panel?
Gotta admit - chuffed at being there at all. Number 53 is pretty good!
Yes I am highly overranked but thank you very much.
Real shame Dizzy didn't beat Iain though. Love your blog dearly Iain but still think Dizzy really deserves to get the top spot in something rather than consistently being pipped by you.
Oh yeah and Andrew - I'm guessing if you think I'm a lefty then you are not the sort of person I can bare too easily either.
90th - I am embarrassed, but also a little proud.
Thanks Iain and to the panel who put me in at number 29.
One small point - it's "Whisky" without the "e". The "e" applies to the American and Irish stuff but here in Scotland (and Canada) it's Whisky!
Thanks (no doubt) to the wonders of copy and paste technology, the link works fine.
Slainte...
not to self, higher bribes needed next year.
Whilst I am delighted, not being an ultra-party-political blogger, there were one or two anomalies here - Toque down at 56 surprised me, with his Witan work and Samizdata not higher.
The good thing about the list is that it encourages us to work that much harder to maintain our place next year.
To Iznewmania - I don't mind Caroline Hunt being up there - she wows the boys, even though her language leaves me cold.
Completely forgot and a quick glance shows that everyone else did too - congratulations, Iain, on taking top spot.
This was not "your" listing - it was done by 12 people and true, so your place is unquestioned.
For the cynics - I have absolutely nothing further to gain here - I just think credit where it is due - it's not easy sitting up there. You have to bloody work for it.
Iain Dale at Number 1. There's a surprise.
No place for C4. It's a disgrace. He's much more entertaining than the deadly dull Newmania.
Pity Cassilis returned so late... a definite top 10 Tory blogger. Well done to dizzy, a reward for party loyalty over and above the call of duty.
Catholic Pope - I reiterate - why shouldn't he be? He didn't make the list.
Glad to see that you're keeping crap blogs like "The Final Redoubt" off your Top 100 lists. Keep up the good work Iain.
Newmania, have you got to 30 green bottles yet? )-:
Nadine Dorries? Ugh. Having just taken a look, there has been some improvement there over the months since I last checked it out, but I still find the blog extremely bland and, if I'm honest, intellectually underwhelming in the extreme. Nadine seems pretty clever, but cleverness and wisdom are not the same thing (especially when it comes to the subjects of, say, the environment or Center Parcs) but hey, it takes all kinds...
ConHome I enjoy but do not find the layout to be at all intuitive, which means I probably only visit once a month.
Oh, and congrats Iain - thoroughly deserved.
just posted in comments on tapestrytalks.typepad.com by me -
Someone's done a real job on me this morning (hong kong time). I cannot access my blog.
Last month some goon penetrated my email and started posting stuff on Dale which they could never have known without getting at my private info.
Chris Paul the Labour blogger seemed to be implying some kind of threat to me by publishing that stuff.
I don't know if it's the same bunch this time, but I cannot access my blog as someone's been in and altered my username and password. I am having to write in the comments.
I guess I'll go back to my earlier blogspot address which I left due to someone blocking that blog a few months ago, which was when I started this one at tapestrytalks.typepad.
I could put in all the anti-hacker stuff, but it's very time consuming to operate, and not my bag, and I don't have a techno-assistant to do it for me.
I'll just move on and try to get this blog unjammed as soon as I can.
meanwhile try www.the-tap.blogspot.com where I still get respectable daily read totals, even though I haven't been posting there for a while.
just as Iain Dale put this blog in the top 100 right wing blogs, it's jammed by some goon.
I wonder which bit of writing has upset them this time.
Iain,
Currently on an extended break in Mexico. Thank you for your placing. Totally undeserved but, well, thank you.
RS
Well done to dizzy, a reward for party loyalty over and above the call of duty.
Is this the "try to wind up dizzy meme" of the moment Bob?
Oh, and many thanks to the panel for my improved position, which comes as a surprise, considering I write mainly from and for a very regional audience!
How are they chosen ?
And where's House of Dumb, or is my speed-reading deficient ?
Brussels Journal should be much higher IMHO. You may not like the message, but it's an important blog. Same goes for EU Referendum - surely a top 10 blog.
Many thanks for the 85th listing for Neuearbeitmachtfrei!
No place for C4. It's a disgrace. He's much more entertaining than the deadly dull Newmania
How wounding ,I find your clownish prat falls highly amusing Piper . I am informed BTW that you never speak at Coucil meetings until a mysterious string is pulled from your back.Can you clear up what has become known as the "Inaction man"question ?
Maybe I should read some of those I've missed up until now.
Thanks for the hard work you've put in.
Ian - greetings from Finland.
As you have me at No 6 on your top welsh blogs, could you add me to your Welsh and Conservative lists sometime in the near future...
www.dylanje.blogspot.com
Iain,
As a first time entrant coming in at 74, I am to say the least humbled.
There are many many good blogs out there, and this book can only add strength to the world of blogging.
Thank you to everyone, whether you only read or voted for PJC Journal.
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